Saturday, December 08, 2012

Defending Energy Producers

1 Comments:

Steve D said...

According to that article; ‘It may not be the best forever, but it is the best for now and we should be grateful to have it.’

I beg to differ. I may have brought this up in the comments on this blog previously but the oil industry is only the best, as far as energy production is concerned, because of the huge regulatory and insurance burden placed on the nuclear industry by the government. These regulations by the way were at least partially the result of the oil lobby.

Even in our present world, minus government imposed restrictions nuclear is cheaper, more efficient, safer and cleaner. How much invisible damage was done by the government due to the reduction of research on nuclear (because of the reduced profitability) can never be known for certain. However, it is estimated that commercial 4th generation nuclear reactors; small efficient and which produce no radioactive waste are about 15-20 years away. What if they were in production today.

How many people realize that one gram of (only slightly radioactive) thorium can produce the same power as 7500 gallons of gasoline, and do it much more safely?

The world’s energy problems were essentially solved in the 1940s, which strangely enough was when people began to worry about them. Incredibly, I’ve seen reports dozens of pages long about energy production which do not even mention nuclear power.

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Ideas cannot be fought except bymeans of better ideas. The battleconsists not of opposing, but ofexposing; not of denouncing but of disproving; not of evading,but of boldly proclaiming a full,consistent and radical alternative.
-- Ayn Rand